Olufunmilayo B. Arewa Professor, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University Senior Fellow for Entrepreneurship & Senior Scholar, Center for Intellectual Property x Innovation Policy (C-IP2) Professor Arewa’s research focuses on technology, the creative industries, business law, accounting, entrepreneurship, comparative law, and Africana studies. Prior to becoming a law professor, she practiced law in the technology startup arena in Silicon Valley, New York, and Boston. She was a Visiting Lecturer at the Center for Afro-American and African Studies (CAAS) at the University of Michigan and a Foreign Service Officer in the U.S. Department of State. In 2019, she was a Fellow at the Käte Hamburger Center for Advanced Study in the Humanities at Universität Bonn for a research project entitled Disruptive Technologies, Digital Colonialism, and the Construction of Commercial Law in Africa. In 2015, she received a German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) Faculty Visit Research Grant at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin for a research project entitled Cultural, Legal, and Business Considerations in the Diffusion of Jazz in Germany, a project connected to her forthcoming book Curating Black Culture: Music, Ownership, and Commodification, which examines business, legal, and cultural contexts of the global spread of African American influenced musical forms. Her 2021 book, Disrupting Africa: Technology, Law & Development (Cambridge University Press), won the ISA 2022 STAIR Book Award, given annually for the best book that develops interdisciplinary perspectives on how science, technology and art permeate international politics. Professor Arewa is a member of the American Law Institute. In addition to writing about music, Professor Arewa studies classical voice.
